Imports slide to $7.6 bln as of 25 March, MoC reports

THE value of Myanmar’s imports between 1 October and 25 March of the past mini-budget period 2021-2022 (Oct-Mar) slightly narrowed to US$7.6 billion, which reflects a drop of $24 million compared to the year-ago period, the Ministry of Commerce’s data indicated.
The import value stood at US$7.64 billion last FY 2020-2021.
The imports of capital goods declined last month, while the other import groups (consumer, intermediate goods, and CMP businesses) increased.
Last month, capital goods, such as auto parts, vehicles, machines, steel, and aeroplane parts, were brought into the country. Their import value was estimated at $1.43 billion. The figure was over $1.3 billion lower than those values registered in the same period of the previous FY.
Meanwhile, Myanmar imported consumer products worth $1.65 billion, including pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and palm oil. The imports of consumer products showed an increase of $73.8 million compared with the same period in the previous FY.
Intermediate goods make up the largest share of Myanmar’s imports, with the main imports of petroleum products and plastic raw materials. This year, imports of raw materials climbed up to $3.4 billion from $2.5 billion registered during the year-ago period.
During the same period, raw materials worth over $318.3 million were also imported for the Cut-Make-Pack (CMP) garment sector, increasing by $1.12 billion compared with last FY.
The top 10 import countries to Myanmar are China, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Viet Nam, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the US, as per data from the Ministry of Commerce. — KK/GNLM